“And besides this, giving all
diligence, add to your faith, virtue; and to virtue,
knowledge; and to knowledge, temperance; and to
temperance, patience; and to patience, godliness; and
to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly
kindness, charity.”—­2 PE. 1:5-7.

MY DEAR SISTER,

In my first letter, I spoke of the importance of growth
in grace, and enumerated some of the fruits of the
Spirit. I revert to the same subject again, for
the purpose of showing the importance of cultivating
the several Christian graces in due proportion, so
as to attain to a uniform consistency of character.

Nothing delights the senses like harmony. The
eye rests with pleasure on the edifice which is complete
in all its parts, according to the laws of architecture;
and the sensation of delight is still more exquisite,
on viewing the harmonious combination of colors, as
exhibited in the rainbow, or the flowers of the field.
The ear, also, is ravished with the harmony of musical
sounds, and the palate is delighted with savory dishes.
But take away the cornice, or remove a column from
the house, or abstract one of the colors of the rainbow,
and the eye is offended; remove from the scale one
of the musical sounds, and give undue prominence to
another, and harmony will become discord; and what
could be more insipid than a savory dish without salt?

So it is with the Christian character. Its beauty
and loveliness depend on the harmonious culture of
all the Christian graces. If one is deficient,
and another too prominent, the idea of deformity strikes
the mind with painful sensations, somewhat similar
to those produced by harsh, discordant musical sounds,
or by the disproportionate exhibition of colors.

It was, probably, with an eye to this, that the apostle
gave the exhortation above quoted. He was exhorting
to growth in grace; and he would have the new man
grow up with symmetrical proportions, so as to form
the “stature of a perfect man in Christ Jesus,”
not having all the energies concentrated in one member,
but having the body complete in all its parts, giving
a due proportion of comeliness, activity, and strength
to each. Thus, he says, Add to your faith virtue.
By faith, I suppose we are to understand the elementary
principle of the Christian character, as exhibited
in regeneration; or the act which takes hold of Christ.
But we are not to rest in this. We are to add
virtue, or strength and courage, to carry out
our new principle of action. But this is not
all that is needed. We may be full of courage
and zeal; yet, if we are ignorant of truth and duty,
we shall make sad work of it, running headlong, first
into this extravagance, and then into that, disturbing
the plans of others, and defeating our own, by a rash
and heedless course of conduct.